Gold Structure

Solid Gold Jewellery

Solid gold jewellery is the most valuable and long lasting form of jewellery. It is an alloy of pure gold with one or more other metals, in order to create jewelleries that are strong and durable. Pure 24ct gold is often too soft to create complicated pieces. This type will normally not tarnish overtime, if cared properly. 

Gold Filled Jewellery

Gold filled pieces are beautiful alternative options than solid sold. They are created by pressure bonding an actual thick layer of gold to another metal, giving the look & desirable properties of solid gold. Some people might hear that gold filled pieces will not tarnish at all and will not rub off or turn colours like 24k solid. This unfortunately is not the case. Gold filled pieces are more endurable than gold plated pieces, so very little tarnishing will be observed in 14K gold filled, and it may take years before discolouration occurs. With proper care in wearing & keeping the gold filled jewelleries, the pieces can literally last lifetime. 

Gold filled jewelleries can be worn on a daily basis without fear of fading or rubbing off. Gold filled base materials we used are imported from United States. It is a legal requirement in the United States to stamp, where possible, items which are gold filled. You will therefore find 'GF 14/20' or '1/20 14K GF' indicating the item is 14K gold filled and 1/20 of gold by weight on our jewelleries. However, not all items are big enough to stamp (same with Sterling Silver items), we therefore have these itmes without stamps. Nevertheless, all of our gold filled jewelleries are 100% gold filled materials from United States where most of the best quality of gold filled materials are manufactured. 

Given the thickness of the real gold, the wearer will not develop allergic reactions. 

Our handmade pearl collection which we will be introducing soon will be falling into this category. 

Gold Vermeil Jewellery (We are here!)

Gold Vermeil (pronounced as ver-may, and not ver-meal) is a common type of gold plating, which uses real gold (normally over 10k gold) electroplated on top of sterling silver as the base metal. Vermeil has a thicker layer of gold (normally 2.5 microns) than normal gold plating. As real gold is actually used for the electroplating process, so the final jewellery pieces are looking exactly same as real gold jewelleries. Vermeil is more hypoallergenic as solid gold given both the base metal and the plating are either sterling silver or real gold. 

At AVILIO, we uses 14k or 18k real gold plated on top of sterling silver. Whether using 14k or 18k purely depends on the actual design. The 14k will have a lighter gold look, more modern and chic while 18k has more gold/yellow concentration which creates a more retro/vintage look. 

Gold Plated Jewellery

Normally something is gold plated, the amount of gold used is usually less than 1% to have the gold effect but does not last long. The base metal is often brass or other types of metal. Most fashion brands uses brass or other cheaper metal as base metal and gold plated to have the gold look. It all comes down to how thick the gold plate is, if it is over a certain percentage, it might be qualified as gold filled. If it is very thin, then it will tarnish easily and possibly leave dirty looks on the jewelleries or the wearers.